Powerhouses Prevail

What a weekend! With the season finally coming to an end while people are going out to enjoy the weather there was still the 9 Ball 404 Finale to play. 44 Shooters came out this weekend to compete for the title and the prize pool of $6,870, $3,000 of which is added by your very own Shooters Snookerclub. This is possibly one of the hardest fields I have seen in a while with the likes of: Erik Hjorleifson, Adam Monture, Ben Crawley, Jeff Robson, etc. Many previous tournament winners were here.
The final 8 would come back on Sunday, but I will start from the final 12. On the A side there was Richard Murray versus Adam Monture and Vishal Mor vs Waleed Hashem. On the B side there was Steve Scobia versus Erik Hjorleifson, Marco Sevilla versus Randy V, John Andrade versus Kevin Oliveira, and finally Jeff Robson versus Ronald Giron. Starting with the A side, Adam Monture showed that his new found rank of 9+ did not have any effect on his beast mode. Coasting through the A side he had his closest match with Richard going hill-hill, but Adam coming out on top secures himself in the A side final and one step closer to another title. The other A side match was complete opposite, with Waleed showing a dominating performance over Vishal winning 8-1. This now matches up Adam and Waleed in the A side final. It would be hard to pick between the two and after testing each other at the start Waleed managed to grab a lead and never look back winning 8-5.
Now with the many B side matches that were going on simultaneously. In the top half of the B side Erik H managed to beat Steve 12-4 and Randy beat Marco hill-hill. In the bottom half Kevin gave the shtick to John beating him 6-1, while the Prince of Pool Ronald Giron puts a halt to Robson’s performance 7-5.
On Sunday, Randy had the tall task of taking down Erik. It is a new day and after some conservative play from Erik keeping Randy from seeing a shot, Erik eventually won 12-2. Kevin and Ronald’s match was mostly Ronald at the table winning his match 7-3. Erik now has to play Richard Murray which was a slightly tougher match for Erik but still winning comfortably 12-4. Vishal who has not been to a tournament in a while managed to come back on day 2 strong beating Ronald 6-3 and now matches Erik once again. The match was going evenly as far as proportional games were concerned until it got to hill-hill. Vishal was on the table and had a chance to win but after a crucial miss Erik managed to steal the rack and thus the set away from Vishal.
Now finally the B side final between two titans Adam and Erik. With little separating the two in terms of skill Adam could be considered a slight favourite. This showed in the result as Adam took the match 9-7 and now has his chance at revenge against Waleed in the tournament final. Adam was determined not to let Waleed get away from him again and each player was going game for game with each other. This ultimately led Waleed to win 8-8 and becoming this year’s 404 Finale Champion!!!
Shooters would like to thank each and every player for playing/supporting the 404 9-ball Tour and see you all on June 17, “3-9” 10-ball tour event ( Last event before Finale ).Field: 44 qualified players
Prize: $6,870 ($3,000 added)
Calcutta: $3,890
1. Waleed Hashem $$2,150
2. Adam Monture $1,380
3. Erik Hjorleifson $900
4. Vishal Mor $580
5. Ronald Giron $370
6. Richard Murray $370
7. Kevin Oliveira $240
8. Randy Ventresca $240
9. Jeff Robson $160
10. Steve Scobie $160
11. Marco Sevilla $160
12. John Andrade $160
**Calcutta not included**